Magnolia Manor is a postbellum manor located in the historic district of
Cairo. Charles A. Galigher was a prominent citizen of Cairo and a
milling merchant, who accumulated a fortune by selling flour to the
government during the Civil War. Through business transactions, he
became a friend of General Ulysses S. Grant, who made his headquarters
in Cairo during his campaign in the Trans-Mississippi Theater. 1869,
after the war, Galigher began construction of a four-storied red brick
Victorian mansion on a two acre site on Washington Avenue.In 1872, it was completed and the fourteen rooms became home to
Charles Galigher, his wife Adelia Lippit Galigher, and their three sons,
Frank, Albert, and Charles Frederick. The mansion is a 14-room red brick
structure which features double walls intended to keep out the city's
famous dampness with their ten inch airspaces. Inside the home are many
original, 19th century furnishings. Because of Galigher’s friendship
with Grant the mansion was the site of a lavish celebration when Grant
retired after two terms as U.S. President.

From
1872 until 1952, the mansion had only four private owners: Galigher,
H.H. Candee, P.T. Langan, and Fain W. King. In 1952, the Cairo
Historical Association was formed and decided to undertake the
preservation of the home as its initial project. The Galigher home
became Magnolia Manor, a Victorian museum, where today visitors admire
the high-ceilinged, spacious, and splendidly appointed rooms. Because
the Galigher house was the scene of the Grant visit and reception and
because it is an outstanding example of Italianate architecture and
typifies a fine Southern Illinois home of the period, it was included in
the Illinois Section of the Historic American Building Survey.In 1969, it was entered on the National Register of Historic
Places.

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